الكاتب: kafej

The streets in Ecuador fell silent the day after hooded gunman invaded a live television broadcast, as President Daniel Noboa declared a “state of war” on drug-trafficking gangs.

Residents in the country’s capital Quito and port city of Guayaquil likened the atmosphere to a pandemic lockdown, with many businesses closed and schools shuttered.

“It’s horrible, the streets are very empty,” Rodolfo Tuaz, a 40-year-old security guard said. “It’s a very cold environment, as if there were a new COVID.”

It comes after live television images broadcast on Tuesday showed people wearing balaclavas – some waving guns – inside Ecuador’s TC Television station in Guayaquil.

Alleged gang members were seen telling TC staff to lie down on the floor and claimed that they had “bombs”, while shouting and noises similar to gunshots could be heard in the background.

The government said nearly 330 people, including 13 people in connection with the live broadcast raid, had been arrested for alleged acts of terrorism.

In an updated statement, President Noboa said: “We are in a state of war and we cannot give in.”

“We’ve taken measures that should have been taken a long time ago, and which past governments didn’t take the decision to do,” he said.

“We are living in a state practically of war against terrorism, these are not organised criminal groups, but terrorists sometimes financed by narcotraffic, sometimes human trafficking, organ trafficking, gunrunning.”

He named 22 gangs as terrorist organisations, making them official military targets.

The president warned that judges, prosecutors and officials who collaborated with the gangs would be considered part of a terrorist network.

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Unrest was triggered after the leader of one of Ecuador’s most powerful drug gangs – Los Choneros – disappeared from prison.

Adolfo Macias – also known as Fito – was serving a 34-year sentence in La Regional prison for drug trafficking and murder when he was reported missing from his cell on 6 January.

President Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency, which he hardened after more than 130 prison guards and staff were taken hostage inside prisons and a series of explosions were reported across the South American country.

The government claimed the latest wave of violence is a reaction to the president’s plan to build new high-security prisons for gang leaders.

The country will also begin deporting foreign prisoners, especially Colombians, to reduce prison populations and spending.

Rishi Sunak suffered a small rebellion on Wednesday night as eight Tory MPs voted against a “draconian” bill to ban public bodies from boycotting Israel.

The Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill ultimately passed its third reading in the Commons, but it was attacked by senior Conservatives as an affront to free speech and in breach of international law.

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The bill, also known as the anti-BDS bill, seeks to prevent public bodies, including councils, from boycotting, disinvesting or sanctioning a particular international territory, unless endorsed by the government’s own foreign policy.

The legislation fulfils a 2019 Conservative manifesto promise but has made its way through parliament during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.

Former minister Kit Malthouse, one of the Tory rebels who voted against it, told the Commons: “The fact we would be seeking to legislate against non-violent protest in such an illiberal and draconian way seems to be tragic at this particular point in time.”

Mr Malthouse argued against a section of the legislation that bans public authorities from saying they would back a boycott if it was lawful, insisting the bill could stand “without those restrictions on freedom of speech”.

He also criticised the way the bill gives ministers the power to make certain countries exempt from the boycott restrictions but not Israel, and appears to include the Occupied Territories and the Occupied Golan Heights as part of its definition of Israel.

Mr Malthouse said this “contravenes international law” and means the bill could “spend a lot of time in the courts”, while “dismaying our allies in the Arab world”.

Those concerns were shared by deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, who said that while her party “completely opposes a policy of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel”, the bill is “deeply flawed”.

“Explicitly equating Israel with the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Golan Heights is an unprecedented step,” she said.

“To my knowledge, this wording has never appeared in British statute before and it seriously undermines our country’s longstanding, consistent and cross-party support for a two-state solution.”

Labour had put forward an amendment calling for the bill to be stopped in its tracks but this was voted down by MPs.

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The bill passed by 282 to 235, a majority 47, and it will now make its way through the House of Lords.

Labour backbencher Andy Slaughter predicted the bill “will not see the light of day before a general election” following scrutiny in the Upper Chamber, where it is likely to face further opposition.

The division list showed there were eight Tory rebels voting against the bill in the Commons, including Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and former ministers Mr Malthouse, Vicky Ford, David Jones, and George Eustice.

They also included Flick Drummond (Meon Valley), William Wragg (Hazel Grove), and Paul Bristow (Peterborough).

Ms Kearns told The Guardian: “This bill is flawed in four key areas: it breaks with our foreign policy; undermines freedom of speech; goes against international law; and promotes an odd exceptionalism in UK primary legislation.”

Bill ‘helps fight antisemitism’

Communities Secretary Michael Gove robustly defended the bill, saying it would prevent public bodies “taking decisions which conflict with UK Government foreign policy” and help fight antisemitism.

He added: “There is a clear intention in this bill which is to deal specifically with the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign, and the BDS’s campaign attempt to use local government and other intermediate institutions and their legitimacy to undermine the UK Government’s foreign policy.”

The BDS movement aims to end international support for Israel’s “oppression of Palestinians” but it has been labelled antisemitic by Israel, Germany and the US.

Mr Gove also insisted the bill won’t stop ministers taking action “if we believe that there is activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that requires to be called out”, and would still allow Downing Street to establish sanctions and travel bans “against those who have been linked to blatant human rights abuses” in Israel.

The bill was debated as pro-Palestinian demonstrations continue, with huge crowds gathered outside Downing Street on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile US secretary of state Antony Blinken travelled to the Middle East, his fourth visit in three months, to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about post-war plans for Gaza.

Against the backdrop of the visit, Israel is sending top legal minds, including a Holocaust survivor, to The Hague this week to counter allegations it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

With no end in sight to the conflict, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron admitted on Tuesday that he is “worried” Israel “might have” broken international law, and that two British nationals remain hostage in Gaza.

Rescue teams searching a California ski resort near Lake Tahoe following an avalanche say one person has died and another has been injured.

A major storm with snow and gusty winds moved into the region after a series of powerful winter storms swept through parts of the eastern US and Canada, claiming the lives of at least five people and leaving more than half a million people without power.

The avalanche in California took place around 9.30am at Palisades Tahoe, according to the resort.

Authorities said a man had died and another man was injured – and that no one else was missing.

The mountain was closed for the day, with weather experts recording 110mph (177kph) gusts on Tuesday afternoon at the summit of Alpine Meadows, the neighbouring sister resort of Palisades.

Sergeant David Smith, a spokesperson for the Placer County sheriff, earlier told The Associated Press there were “no confirmed reports” of people trapped in the avalanche, but search teams were assessing the area.

It comes as a storm sweeps across the country towards the west coast of the US, following a series of strong winter storms in the east of the country.

Near Cottonwood, Alabama, a small city near the Georgia and Florida borders, an 81-year-old woman was killed when her mobile home was tossed from its foundation, the Houston County coroner said.

A suspected tornado had touched down in the area.

Police in Clayton County, south of Atlanta, said a man died during heavy rain when a tree fell on his car on a state road in Jonesboro.

Another man was also crushed to death by a tree that came down in Birmingham, Alabama, on Tuesday morning, local media, citing local officials, reported.

Authorities in Missouri said a 17-year-old female driver from Rolla was killed Tuesday evening after she lost control of the car, struck a portion of the overpass, and then was hit by a tractor-trailer.

In North Carolina, one person died and two others were in critical condition after a suspected tornado struck a mobile home park in the town of Claremont, north of Charlotte, said Amy McCauley, a spokesperson for Catawba County.

Storm-related injuries were reported in Florida, but no deaths.

Meanwhile, more than 630,000 households in the eastern US, from Florida to New York State, were without electricity, as of Tuesday evening.

New Jersey governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency and New York City officials evacuated nearly 2,000 migrants housed at a sprawling tent complex.

In Maine, Governor Janet Mills delayed the opening of all state offices until noon on Wednesday due to the storm.

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Rain and high winds extended into the nation’s capital, forcing vice president Kamala Harris’s aircraft to divert from Joint Base Andrews to Dulles International Airport near Washington when it encountered wind shear, a sudden shift in wind direction or speed.

Many areas of Florida remained under flood watches, warnings and advisories early Wednesday morning amid concerns that streams and rivers were topping their banks.

Governor Ron DeSantis, who gave his State of the State address as tornado warnings were active outside the Capitol, issued an executive order to include 49 counties in North Florida under a state of emergency.

The storm also caused severe coastal flooding in New Hampshire, and in Bamberg, South Carolina, a possible tornado knocked down several old brick storefronts.

Another storm that began on Monday buried cities across the Midwest in snow, stranding people on roads.

Some areas saw up to a foot of snow on Monday, including Kansas, eastern Nebraska and South Dakota, western Iowa, and southwestern Minnesota.

In southeastern Wisconsin, an SUV driver died on Tuesday in a head-on collision with a semitrailer on a slushy, snowy state highway, authorities said.

In western Michigan, a 35-year-old woman died after she lost control of her minivan on a slushy road and it collided with an SUV, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said.

The ambulance taking her to a Grand Rapids hospital, where she was pronounced dead, was struck by another vehicle en route there, and a second ambulance was needed to finish the transport to the hospital.

رام الله – وكالات:

طالب وزير الخارجية الأميركي أنتوني بلينكن، الرئيس الفلسطيني محمود عباس، بإجراء إصلاحات في الحكم، فيما أكد محمود عباس أن غزة جزء لا يتجزأ من الدولة الفلسطينية.

وأكدت مصادر أن اللقاء الذي جمع بلينكن بعباس في رام الله بالضفة الغربية المحتلة «كان متوتراً، وشابه مناكفات وتلاسن».

وطلب الطرف الفلسطيني من بلينكن الضغط للإفراج عن أموال الضرائب الفلسطينية. وقال الفلسطينيون لبلينكن إنه «إذا لم يكن عندكم القدرة على تحرير الأموال، فكيف ستكون عندكم القدرة للضغط على إسرائيل وتحقيق السلام والدولة الفلسطينية؟!».

وعاود بلينكن إلى المطالبة بإجراء إصلاحات في السلطة الفلسطينية وأجهزتها الأمنية، فردّ الجانب الفلسطيني بأن «عليكم إصلاح أنفسكم وسياستكم تجاه القضية الفلسطينية». عقب اللقاء، قال المتحدث باسم وزارة الخارجية الأميركية ماثيو ميلر: إن بلينكن أكد موقف واشنطن الثابت على وجوب قيام دولة فلسطينية إلى جانب إسرائيل «والعيش في سلام وأمن».

من جانبه، حذر محمود عباس من خطورة ما تقوم به سلطات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي من إجراءات، تهدف إلى تهجير أبناء الشعب الفلسطيني من قطاع غزة، أو الضفة الغربية، بما فيها القدس، والتي كشفتها التصريحات الصادرة عن وزراء ومسؤولين إسرائيليين، والتي تدعو إلى طرد الشعب الفلسطيني من أرضه.

وأكد عباس الرفض الكامل لتهجير أي مواطن فلسطيني، سواء في قطاع غزة، أو الضفة الغربية، ولن نسمح بحدوثه.